Who you gonna call? (Not ghostbusters)

Betty-B--M-0
Level 10
Nairobi, Kenya

Who you gonna call? (Not ghostbusters)

Hi all, 

 

Just read a post where host Wendy of Stonington, CT suggested that calling ABB everytime something goes wrong is a little much. Basically, your house, your rules, guest observes or leaves.

While this may sound a little cut-and-dried, I think it is brilliant.

Imagine you are running a guest house  or rental property entirely on your own initiative and without ABB.

If something went wrong and you felt the guest/tenant had to go and there was no one to call (except perhaps the police or emergency services if it got that serious), what would you do?

Now I know we are concerned about bad reviews, blocked calendars etc because in reality, we are on ABB and not entirely independent. 

Still, with a little imagination and some authoritativeness, some things may be better and faster resolved without wasting time looking for the ABB phone number, sending a ream of emails, venting on the forum, and feeling generally upset or afraid of consequences. 

Just my two cents. I'm ready for any dressing-down now. 

Thank you for reading and with thanks to Wendy of Stonington, CT for sparking my imagination.

42 Replies 42
Jay100
Level 1
Pagadian City, Philippines

What is up with there being no way to report a fraudulent listing? All you can do is "flag" as listing with a set of drop down choices, none of which match the problem, and no way to create a ticket to stop the fraud. Airbnb does not seem to care about its brand going down the toilet - at all!

@Jay100 possibly to prevent unintentional, mistaken or malicious reportings i.e. you can flag it and state why, then ABB has a chance to investigate. If it was possible to immediately mark a listing as fraudulent, can you envisage what would happen if your angry neighbours, jealous competitors, or all thumbs web-surfers clicked the button and your listing immediately got shown as fraudulent? Just a thought. 🙂

Jay100
Level 1
Pagadian City, Philippines

There is no option to state "why" or make any comment whatsoever. That has been removed.

@Jay100, of course there is. 

When you click "Report this listing" you get the options below, with the first one being appropriate for fraudulent listings. Easy or easy? 🙂 

Screen Shot 2017-03-29 at 09.43.33.png

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Betty-B--M-0

Betty, thank you so much for posting that! Reporting a listing is something that most of us will never have to do so, I and I guess many others have never got to see what happens when you flag that profile. 

We know what happens but we have never actually seen it!

This is all very relevant and helpful information to have, and it is thanks to hosts like you who actually take the time to show us that makes us all that little bit better and more professional!

Thanks Betty......you are a gem!

Cheers.....Rob

@Robin4, I agree that most of us happily won't have to report listings. For those who will need to do so,  I'm happy this may be useful.

As for your kind words, ahhh shucks! 🙂 

Thank you so much and I will only say that it takes one to know one...right back at you, Rob. 🙂  If you're ever in Nairobi, hope to have the privilege of shaking your hand or better yet hosting you. 

 

Betty

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Betty-B--M-0

That would be a great wish to have, but I am afraid Ade's legs have given out on her now and as much as I would love to visit Africa I fear the last overseas trip we will be able to do is a cruise from Fort Lauderdale through the Panama canal and back to Sydney. 

The last item on my bucket list though is to see the Northern Lights. I have seen the Aurora Australis on the way to Antarctica but I believe it is nothing compared to the Aurora Borealis.

That will remain my dream though, to cruise to the northern lights!

Keep up your great hosting Betty and you never know, one day our paths may cross!

Cheers....Rob

@Robin4 and may our paths cross somewhere between the Aurora Australis and Borealis; what a crossing that would be! I never thought of putting those on my bucket list but there; ya dun gone an' 'spired me! 🙂

Please give my best to Ade (eventhough she doesn't know me from a hole in the ground), I hope the legs won't trouble her too much and that the cruise goes swimmingly (not literally). Care to drop a line or two in the community forum when you do it, just to let us know about the experience? Could be a fun read and different from what we normally see. 

Keep up your own great hosting and story-telling, Rob. It's a true blessing to be in contact with hosts like you and I can only wish you every success and happiness.

Betty 

Jay100
Level 1
Pagadian City, Philippines

What I mean is there is no place to type in your own comment about why you are flagging. You are forced to choose from a set of answers. The answer I wanted to leave is not there. Bottom line: Airbnb does not want to deal with any sort of ticket being created that they would have to spend labor dollars on processing. Airbnb is bigger than most if not all hotel chains, yet has zero true customer email or ticket support. People know this now and are not happy about it. This is damaging Airbnb's brand. That is undisputable. To deny that hurts the brand even further.

@Jay0, warning: long post up ahead! 

Hi there! Yes indeed it isn't possible to type up why you think the listing is fraudulent. 

Fair enough. More information explaining what led you to flagging may be marginally helpful. 

Nevertheless, at least you do get to flag it quickly, easily and then in a stream-lined way, say why you've done so by selecting 1 of the 4 easy options. 

 

I don't have an inside view of the systems but it seems like for the sake of reducing those time and labour dollars that you mention, (a reasonable goal for any business including ABB), they would follow the "build-up" approach.

I.e. if a listing gets one fraudulent flag amid a throng of completed/successful bookings, perhaps there is no cause for alarm. Could have been a series of misclicks, an angry neighbour, a competitor etc. At the very least, the host has the benefit of the doubt. 

If the same listing builds up multiple flags from multiple users, coupled with cancelled bookings, low ratings etc then there is most likely a real problem that needs to be more closely investigated. 

 

I know of at least one occurrence where a hosts listings are no longer available on ABB precisely because of what seems fraudulent. There is no big announcement or embarrassment to the individual concerned but see the link below.  Apart from terrible reviews, notice how there are no available listings under the host and you can’t even get to them through the links beside each review: https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/84050973  

Presumably the listings have been removed by ABB which shows me that they do eventually get to fraudulent listings and hosts.  

As I see it, nothing would be more inefficient than spending time and effort investigating one flag, only to find it's a boy who cried "wolf."

 

Ultimately, if you do strongly sense that a listing is fraudulent and poses a real danger to safety, trust etc., why not call or email ABB? There are multiple threads out there on the best way to do and I particularly like this one from @Dave0&Deb: 

https://community.airbnb.com/t5/Community-Help/Contact-Airbnb-A-Community-Help-Guide/m-p/16165/highl...

(Also ABB do have email and ticket support, may not be perfect or exactly what you may wish for, but it does exist. Not defending them, just stating a fact). 

 

Ok, that’s that for that! What a long post! Thank you for reading and happy weekend to you! 

@Betty-B--M-0

Again - thank you for an informative and balanced post. But let's hope that others are reading this and learning something, and are grateful for the opportunity - because it would seem that @Jay100 will not be satisfied and will not quit bellyaching.

 

PS. Love the new profile pic! 🙂

 

 

@Rachael26 again - you're always welcome and at risk of starting a never-ending round of thank yous, my gratitude to you for being so kind and appreciative (down to the level of noticing the photo. 🙂 If you're ever in Nairobi, I'll show you how to shamelessly photobomb a giraffe!)

David126
Level 10
Como, CO

Assuming whoever responds to the flags starts with the ones that have the most they probably never get to the one flagged listings.

David